1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method of processing characters by which characters are arranged in an area.
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method of processing characters by which a group of characters are divided to be stored.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, with many character processing apparatuses, not only character data contained in a document can be processed, but also image data, e.g. tables or graphics, contained therein can also be processed mixedly. The document processing apparatus of this sort is designed in such a way that before inputting the characters, the character line can be inputted to a specified rectangular area one character by one character using a keyboard, the characters, for which the range is specified, of the inputted character group can be inputted by being moved or copied, or can be transferred to that area. In addition, some of those apparatuses can carry out the control in such a way that the graphics or the like and the character data do not overlap each other.
In addition, Windows (Microsoft) or the like have come into wide use recently so that it has become possible that a plurality of documents are simultaneously edited when drawing up the documents, and also it has become possible by utilizing simultaneously various applications that a plurality of works are carried out simultaneously and in parallel.
As a result, for the character data within the area in which a plurality of character data contained in the same document is to be arranged, and for the character data contained in a plurality of documents, the copy and the movement have been able to be readily carried out.
However, when the movement, copy and transfer of the character line have become to be readily carried out either between a plurality of documents or in the single document, a large amount of character data may be transferred to the small area, which has the less number of displayable character data, in edition of the document(s) by the maloperation which an editor does not intend in some cases.
In addition, in the document processing apparatus in which the rectangular area, in which the character data is to be displayed, is previously specified, in general, the format information such as the size of the specified area and the position of arrangement of the character data can be changed after having arranged once the characters. In this connection, even when all of the character data is displayed in the area before changing the size of the area and the format attribute, by reducing the size of the area and by changing the attribute of the character size, there may occur the case where the characters any of which can not be displayed, are generated within the area.
Then, if the character data which is left since it is more than the specified area can receive, is generated, then the character data which is left since it is more than the specified area can receive, will not be displayed on the picture at all. In particular, when the characters are uniformly arranged within the area, since the character data which is left since it is more than the area can receive, is not displayed, an operator can not visually judge whether or not the character data which has overflowed from the area is present, and hence such character data is left as it is in many cases.
Then, the character data which is left as it is, while not displayed, present as the character data, which results in that the memory is unprepared wasted.
Further, even when an operator becomes aware of that the character data which is left since it is more than the specified area can receive, is present, an operator needs to carry out the work of carrying out the document edition after having changed the size of the character arrangement area in such a way that all of the character data which is left since it is more than the specified area can receive is displayed, and then restoring the size of the character arrangement area back to the original size. Therefore, the work of editing the character data is troublesome and complicated.
In addition, when the character data is read out from the text file to be successively transferred to be associated with the area, there is the case where however the area is increased, all of the character data can not be displayed since it is more than that area can receive. In such a case, the character data the amount of which is equal to or larger than the number of characters overflowing from the area needs to be deleted. In this connection, a part of the character line which is displayed within the area needs to be deleted and in addition thereto, a part of the overflow character line which becomes to be displayed as a result of that deletion needs to be deleted, and so forth. Therefore, an operator needs to carry out the very complicated work.